I'm doing a wedding cake in a couple weeks and she wants to use fresh orchids. Will the flower spike things work for these??

use florist tape to wrap the ends. The florist will usually do that for you if you ask.

We are ordering them from Hawaii, so I'll be doing it. Would you still use the flowe spike or just the florist tape??

I'd use the florist tape...it's less bulky!

thanks

We just received the orchids this afternoon. We got the green cymbidum orchids.....GORGEOUS!!! But the stems are really, really thick..... would I still use the florist tape. I don't want to poke big holes in the cake, but she wants a cascade effect. Anyway to do this w/o actually sticking flowers in the cake?? She didn't really like the look of the flowers just resting on each tier....she said she wanted them to 'flow' better!!!


Would I be able to cut the stem and wrap them w/wire and just stick the wire in the cake?? We only have enough orchids to do the cake....no extras (man were these expensive!!!)...so I can't mess this up!! Anywhere can I look to get instructions to attach florists wire to fresh flowers?

Anyhoo Pinkbunny, I get the ends wrapped in the florist tape and I also use the florist wire bent in half (like a hair pin) and secure them to the cake. Don't go overboard with the pinning and count how many you use so that you can tell the kitchen..."There are 8 florist wire pins in this cake, 2 here, 2 here, 2 here and 2 here." The flower spike/tinfoil/plastic wrapped ends sound really bulky, which won't work for your cake by the sound of it?

Never had an issue with either method!

I had asked the florists about putting the orchids in the cake and she said it shouldn't be a problem. But I know they weren't grown organically.....the petals are sticky!!! I should have researched these better before i agreed to do the cascade. the flowers arent' going to be put on until the recpt. anyway and i'm meeting her before i set up. might have to modify a bit.....hopefully she'll understand. i may check out the flowerspikes.....hopefully the stems aren't too large to fit!!!

antonia74.....after you wrap in floral tape and wire....you just stick the wire directly into the cake??

CAll your local florist that does weddings and ask them about ordering a cake topper of fresh flowers, then as them can they make a cascading one, then ask how they would stick it on the cake.

I had a florist do mine and they delivered it and put it on the cake themselves but you can always call and ask as if you were in the market for one for yourself.

Many florists will put non-organically grown arrangements on a cake or stick the flowers in a cake or stick wired flowers in a cake but this is not a safe practice. Wire should never be inserted directly into a cake, not sure if that was what was meant about using florist pins.
Wire rusts, is sometimes painted or treated or manufactured using lead in the process.
The green dye used on floral tape is not food safe and when flowers inserted in a cake are wrapped in this tape, it is not food safe and also, the dye can bleed out. After flower stems are wrapped in florist's tape they should also be wrapped in a small piece of plastic wrap. Or the wired flowers should be placed in a straw or form of plastic dowel that is hollow in order for them to maintain a barrier between them and the flowers. The chemical composition of the floral tape and its reaction to moisture is the issue.
I am editing this to add this, Ron-Ben Israel twists the taped wires around straws or wooden skewers and inserts the straw or skewer into the cake, not the wires. This would be less bulky.
Many people do follow these practices because they are not aware of the issues and there are no regulatory rules in place governing the use of flowers, tape, floral wire etc. in place when using these items in connection with food.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

Just dawned on me that it was the "U" pins that were being referred to as bent pins, these are usually made out of stainless steel and once washed, would be food safe as long as there is no risk of them not all being removed.
Hugs Squirrelly

thanks, i like using the straw idea or wrapping the floral tape in plastic wrap. i would feel better about that than just sticking the flowers in the cake. but i think these stems are bigger than most straws.

to make sure I understand correctly, if i wrap the stems in florists tape and then wrap in plastic wrap......then they should be ok if I stuck in the side of cake?? or find stainless steel florists "U" pins, wash them and then stick the pin in the cake.

Well, as Antonia said, I think with orchids you usually want them in a position of lying down, so sticking them into the cake, with the size of the stems may cause some damage to your cake. So normally when you are doing a cascade, you are wiring them together like a garland and only say, the beginnning of the garland at the top edge of the cake or wherever you are placing it and the middle and perhaps bottom end, would be attached to the cake.
Basically you are wiring a group of flowers together and attaching them to the next group of flowers and so on. Or you are wiring one flower to the next and so on until you have your string or garland of flowers. Does that make sense?
What I normally do, is make up a garland and have the flowers attached to covered wire, then I stack cake pans or cake dummys that are the size of the cake and figure out how best this will look on the real cake. Then I would wrap additional covered wire with longer ends, so that this wire could be either inserted into a straw, or wrapped around either a straw, wooden skewer, popsicle (craft) stick and then this is what would be inserted in the cake. See because the flowers are sort of a wired garland, you can bend it to fit the shape you want so that it cascades nicely. But when you insert flowers individually, you have to be careful not to force the angle because this will damage you cake and could break the flower. Also, you will end up with less cake because you have so many holes in it and it will also be messy to serve.
Does this make sense? What I am trying to say is that you want to attach the flowers to the cake in such a way as to minimalize damage to the cake and to the flowers and to minimalize contact.
Hugs Squirrelly

I was trying to find an example of how to make a garland on the internet, this is for making a head garland, but same idea.
www.save-on-crafts.com/makflorheadg.html